UCI Forward

UCI Forward is our commitment to the well-being of our community as we ramp up campus operations. Working together, each of us doing our part, we can move UCI Forward.

May 27 - Updates on COVID-19

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A baby blue birdhouse in Aldrich Park. Photo by Nedda Bozorgmehri

A baby blue birdhouse in Aldrich Park. Photo by Nedda Bozorgmehri

TODAY’S CAMPUS UPDATES

ZotCorps community project

Registered Campus Organizations are participating in the inaugural ZotCorps Community Project, creating fun and educational videos to be shared with students in Santa Ana after-school programs. This quarter’s theme is “Health & Wellness in Remote Learning.” Support campus organizations at UCI and the Santa Ana community by voting for your favorite video by this Sunday.

No new campus cases*

No student residents or on-campus employees tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. For more information, visit the UCI COVID-19 dashboard.

UCI COVID-19 NEWS AND EVENTS

Janay Bambino#IamUCI: Janay Bombino

In an unprecedented year of completing their degrees remotely, 10,204 students will receive their bachelor’s degrees as members of UCI’s 55th graduating class. One of those graduates is Janay Bombino, a materials science and engineering major. Here is her story:

“Not only is [Janay Bombino] one of The Henry Samueli School of Engineering’s most promising graduates, but she’s also one of only 44 U.S. college students to receive the 2021 Brooke Owens Fellowship, a paid internship and executive mentorship for exceptional undergraduate women in aerospace. Bombino will intern at Ball Aerospace in Washington, D.C., this summer as part of the strategic operations team involved in creating working policy from technical information gleaned from company projects. While this was her first national recognition, she’s been making an impression since her first year at UCI after transferring from Mount San Antonio College in Walnut. A member of the California Alliance for Minority Participation, Bombino was awarded the Edison STEM Transfer Scholarship. She hopes to make the spacecraft that takes the first people to another planet. ‘I want to know what makes us humans on Earth,’ she says, laughing, ‘and, more importantly, how to get us off of it.’”

Upcoming events

GENERAL COVID-19 NEWS

This section curates noteworthy coronavirus news, trends and opinions. No endorsement by UCI is implied. Note: Some news sites require subscriptions to read articles. The UCI Libraries offer free subscriptions to The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, OC Register and Washington Post for students, faculty and staff.

US jobless claims fell to 406,000 last week

Claims for first-time unemployment benefits fell for the fourth consecutive week, hitting a new pandemic low.

Disneyland parks open tickets to non-CA residents

Disneyland and Disney California Adventure have begun selling tickets to travelers from out of state for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic shut their doors more than a year ago.

Delta airlines will only hire people who have been vaccinated

CEO of Delta Airlines Ed Bastian said the company will only be hiring people who are vaccinated as travel, particularly on planes, starts to reopen.

Vaccination gaps prominent issue in CA

Despite the overall progress made in vaccinating residents for COVID-19, vast gulfs in inoculation rates have opened among California’s 58 counties, illustrating the state’s uneven pace toward community immunity against the coronavirus.

CA officials are expected to roll out a new vaccination strategy

A new shift in COVID vaccination strategy is coming, as public health officials prepare for a statewide reopening in less than three weeks, when nearly all virus restrictions will be lifted.

Immunity to COVID may persist for years

Immunity to the coronavirus lasts at least a year, possibly a lifetime, improving over time especially after vaccination, according to two new studies.

CVS offering prizes for COVID vaccinations

CVS Health is betting a chance to win a trip to the Super Bowl, a Bermuda vacation or cash prizes will entice residents to get COVID-19 vaccinations.

Japan considers extending coronavirus state of emergency

Japan's government will decide Friday whether to extend a state of emergency across much of the country, nearly two months before the planned start of the delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics.

HOPE, INSPIRATION, LAUGHTER

Amid the heartbreaking loss of life and economic hardship wrought by the coronavirus, we recognize the need for stories of kindness, hope, courage and humor.

Giant otter feared extinct pops up

Yesterday’s tortoise isn’t the only animal that’s surprised conservationists in recent days.

Last week, a wild giant river otter – an animal feared extinct in Argentina due to habitat loss and hunting – was seen on the Bermejo River in Impenetrable national park. The last sighting of the predator in Argentina was in the 1980s. On the Bermejo, none have been seen for more than a century.

#UCIconnected

Spring days call for ice cream

Mesa court students
Mesa Court students took a break from studying for finals to enjoy a cool treat on a warm day. Photo by Corey Tull

If you have a shoutout, or if you’d like to share what you’ve been up to during the pandemic, send photos and/or words about your COVID-19 vaccination, activities, workstation, volunteering, etc., to marketing@uci.edu or post on social media with the #UCIconnected hashtag.